There was once a time in Riverside where you could throw a stick anywhere on University Avenue or other streets in downtown and hit an all-ages show.
Places like The UCR Barn, The Ritz, Spanky’s Cafe, Harry C’s, Attitudes, the De Anza Theater, and a host of other small DIY music halls would bounce with the sounds of punk, hardcore, and ska music from local bands playing together or mixing it up with bands from out of town.
“60 Miles East: Riverside’s Underground Punk Rock, Hardcore, & Ska Scene, from the late 1980s to early 2000” pays homage to that formative era for generations of kids who grew up in and near Riverside; a time when there was always a free or cheap show available to attend, where local bands comprised of high school kids could get onstage experience in their hometown, and where local bands could be lucky enough to open for artists who would eventually become world famous.
“It was just a vibe that the story needed to be told,” says Ken Crawford, who co-curated the exhibit with Zach Cordner, the co-publisher of The Riversider Magazine, where he serves as editor-at-large.
The initial idea for the exhibit began with a short conversation with Drew Oberjuerge, the former Riverside Art Museum executive director, at another iconic Inland Empire location.
“About a year and a half ago . . . I was working as a journalist and we were both at a Stater Bros. reopening,” says Crawford. “We were small talking afterwards . . . she was talking about how she wanted to do something [with local] music. I told her that Zach [Cordner], our publisher, had hundreds of photos and we should have a meeting.”
The exhibit began with Cordner’s vast collection of the band and concert photographs he took in the ‘90s. His foray into concert photography began when one of his friends asked him to take photos of their band's show at Harry C’s in 1993.
That first gig led to hundreds more in Riverside and the IE, an experience that eventually opened the doors to a career as the VIP photographer for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival for 15 consecutive years.
“I would have bands come and pick me up from wherever I was at and then we'd go out and do shoots and stuff,” says Cordner. “I was only like 14 or 15. I started my hustle early, very early.”
Besides Cordner’s vast photo collection, the exhibit includes photos from numerous other photographers, as well as t-shirts and flyers provided by Bill Fold of 98 Posse.
The 98 Posse are also listed as a co-presenter of the exhibit, along with Travis Barker. The drummer (who needs no introduction) is a native of neighboring Fontana and spent his youth in Riverside, where guys like Fold took him under his wing. Barker and Fold helped fund the exhibit.
Crawford and Cordner also received tons of material from friends, friends of friends, members of long-defunct local bands, and a bevy of random folks who spent the best days of their youth in Riverside’s music scene.
“It was just a big treasure hunt,” says Cordner. “But it was like between treasure hunting and archeology, digging up old stuff in the past, and finding these relics and bringing them to a museum to showcase. We got a lot of stuff, but there's still a lot of stuff that we couldn't show.”
The exhibit at RAM is a shrine to the musicians and residents who nurtured a scene and created a haven for the region’s youth to express themselves artistically, professionally, and personally.
There’s a wall dedicated to local “cowpunk” heroes Los Infernos, another for living ska-punk legends Voodoo Glow Skulls, and another section dedicated to skate-punk band Backside.
Another section is stacked with photos of local acts such as The Skeletones, Ignite, Falling Sickness, Old Nick, Applecore, Lunch Truck, and more.
There’s a wall covered in concert flyers from the ceiling to a few feet off the floor. The flyers include a mix of punk, hardcore, and ska, but also shows from the likes of metal bands like Slayer and Cannibal Corpse, along with reggae music festivals.
“As far as Riverside is concerned, shows were just something you did because you didn’t want to do anything else,” Crawford says of the scene back then. “You didn’t want to go to prom and you didn’t want to go to the basketball game and there was a show and it was probably a heavy metal band and a pop-punk band and a ska band and white guys playing reggae. You didn't really get to choose.”
Cordner and Crawford were also able to get their hands on iconic memorabilia from two venues that birthed and carried the scene for years: Shanky’s Cafe and The Showcase Theater, both owned and operated by Ezzat Soliman.
The original store sign for Shanky’s hangs above the portion of the exhibit dedicated to the Italian restaurant-turned-impromptu punk venue.
“It was a restaurant during the day, and then at night, it was just like a crazy punk and hardcore scene,” said Cordner of one of Riverside’s iconic venues. “That's what's really crazy is that this scene really started from an Egyptian immigrant with an Italian restaurant. Who would have thought that it would evolve to that and to Showcase Theater and just creating a whole scene in the IE from one man, [Ezzat Soliman, who] just needed more people in his restaurant?”
A staple of The Showcase Theater was a bicycle that hung from the ceiling. It now hangs in the exhibit over the portion dedicated to the venue, which wasn't in Riverside but carried the city’s music scene after redevelopment forced the closure of multiple venues and businesses in downtown. This includes Spanky’s, which fell when frozen burrito magnate Duane Roberts bought the Mission Inn Hotel & Spa in 1992.
“They wanted to get Spanky’s out and also Attitudes,” said Cordner. “It was another all-ages club two blocks down, which was run by Bill Fold from 98 Posse. The development people came to them and said, ‘We want you guys out. Here's a bunch of money, just don't open another club in Riverside.’”
Soliman used that money to take over a defunct movie theater in Corona in 1993. Until 2008, The Showcase Theater hosted local, independent, and underground artists, nurturing a music scene.
“He took that Riverside scene basically to Corona,” said Cordner.
Fold would also move on to bigger and better. After the closure of Attitudes, he and 98 Posse took over the UCR Barn as the venue’s bookers in 1994.
“Shows from The Barn go all the way back to the ‘60s, but what really blew up The Barn was when Bill Fold took it over in ‘94,” says Cordner. “He brought really good, class act bands from all over the world to Riverside and he allowed those smaller bands to open up for those bands.”
The scene in Riverside today looks nothing like it did 20, much less 30, years ago, thanks to numerous changes and developments in the city and the region. A few venues and independent promoters, however, are working to host a new generation of local artists at venues in Riverside and the Inland Empire to provide shows and spaces where a new scene can thrive.
Mosh For Youth recently announced they would begin hosting shows in San Bernardino. Nothing Less Booking has hosted shows in Riverside, Bloomington and San Bernardino.
Last year, Frets Music opened its doors to local artists as a one-stop shop for music gear, lessons, rehearsal spaces and local band showcases. The Farm House Collective, which Cordner pointed out as a promising venue, also opened recently. The UCR Barn, which shut down in 2018, reopened in 2020 following a $30 million expansion and renovation, but lacks a 98 Posse-style booking group to reinvigorate the scene at the venue.
“Knowing that there’s no venues right now in Riverside kind of kills me,” says Barker. “I hope [the exhibit] sparks something. I hope it lights a fire with the youth, them seeing what it was and all these great bands that came through, whether they came through and played or they were local bands; what a vibrant, just healthy scene there was for hardcore, punk rock music, and ska music.
“Hopefully it inspires some youngsters to start throwing some shows at a venue just like Ezzat [Soliman] did years ago, or Bill [Fold] did at The Barn,” he says.
“I have a kid that's 19 and plays in bands and he's got to go to Pomona to play or Lake Forest or somewhere else to play,” says Crawford, lamenting the dearth of proper venues and spaces for young artists to practice, perform and grow their musical careers in or, simply, have something fun to do any given day of the week.
“I would love to talk to some of these people, now that we're in our late 40s and our early 50s,” he continues. “If we could put our efforts and a little bit of money together and talk with the city and figure out a path to getting a club for the kids, if that's something that comes out of this, then it's a definite win.”
“If we could find somewhere in Riverside where we can have an all-ages venue again,” adds Cordner. “I think we could rekindle that scene and maybe create a whole new generation of music of punk, ska, and hardcore here in Riverside.
“My hope with this is that this show really inspires the youth and to also pass down the knowledge that all this stuff happened here in Riverside, and it's important for people to know what happened here,” he adds. “We had a lot going on here at the time and, hopefully, one day it'll be like this again.”
“60 Miles East: Riverside’s Underground Punk Rock, Hardcore & Ska Scene, from the late 1980s to early 2000” is on display now through April 26, 2026, at the Riverside Art Museum ~ 3425 Mission Inn Ave. Riverside, CA 92501
Click through photo gallery below:
